A strengthening Tropical Cyclone Lua is shown well off the North West of Australia on this Mar. 15, 2012, satellite shot. (BoM imagery) Mar 15, 2012; 11:52 AM ET
Potentially destructive Tropical Cyclone Lua was poised Thursday for a late-week strike on the northwestern shores of Australia.
A Tropical Cyclone Warning was posted along the Pilbara coast by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). A BoM Tropical Cyclone Watch was flying for a wide area inland and east of the warned area.
A late morning to midday, Saturday, local time, landfall on the Pilbara coast of Western Australia east of Port Hedland was forecast by the BoM.
Thursday, Lua effectively became a hurricane, its highest sustained winds estimated at 120 km/h (65 knots) by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). The BoM classed Lua as a Category 2 cyclone on their own cyclone intensity scale.
The JTWC forecast Lua to strengthen to the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane before landfall. Category 4 cyclone status ahead of landfall was projected by the BoM.
A storm of this strength would be capable of extensive damage. However, much of the Pilbara is sparsely settled, and the worst of the storm's potentially destructive winds and tidal flooding could easily miss the few towns in the area.
Flooding rain will spread southward along with Lua, likely reaching deep into the hinterland of vast Western Australia state.
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